Week 41 - Challenger ($100,000) - Tiburon, CA, USA (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 41 - Challenger ($100,000) - Tiburon, CA, USA (Hard)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Evo not playing at his best since the US open, tough with all that reaction to back up again. Still believe he can get close to the top 100 next year.

indiana · Tennis legend

These challengers were always likely to be well quite a challenge. Remember, he hasn't actually really played consistently at this level.

I thought and still think top 100 next year will be a stiff target. He is being pretty competitive though so I do hope doesn't get deflated. At least quite rightly finally left these darn futures behind.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

Julia Carrot wrote:
He is probably still a bit 'run down' from his tooth problems. Extractions aren't always straightforward and if he had to take antibiotics that could affect him as well.

Sorry Julia but if you are fit enough to take to the court, you are fit enough not to make excuses if you lose. If he was that bad could he not have just withdrawn?

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Yeah, it's disappointing....But in pro sport, you have to take the rough with the smooth, the highs with the lows. Dan is old enough to understand this, he should not be too despondent about this trip. He needs some rest now, recover from the anaesthetic and pain killers.

He'll be back!

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Also, the guy he had a match point against a few weeks ago has just beaten Richard Gasquet in straight sets....

indiana · Tennis legend

A131, to my mind Julia makes perfectly reasonable points, and I am not aware of Evo himself making any excuses.

Anyway, I don't see the logic in that he should have withdrawn if rather less than 100%. Would be a heck of a lot more withdrawals if all players followed that decree. Evo presumably thought he would be competitive and it certainly appears that he was.

Absolutely nothing wrong in pointing out how he could have been adversely effected.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I don't buy the "if he's not 100% fit, he shouldn't play" line, either. It's not a team game like cricket (or Davis Cup), where you could argue that a fit replacement could do better. And it's not like his dental problems got aggravated by playing (unlike, say, a wrist injury), so where's the harm in just giving it a go? At best, he could have fluked a win, and at worst, it's $1040. Win-win.

Since he'll be back in time, I hope that he'll give Tour qualies a go this weekend.

indiana · Tennis legend

Agree, stevemcqueen, and in truth I wasn't even aware that he'd gone away !

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

indiana wrote:
A131, to my mind Julia makes perfectly reasonable points, and I am not aware of Evo himself making any excuses.

Anyway, I don't see the logic in that he should have withdrawn if rather less than 100%. Would be a heck of a lot more withdrawals if all players followed that decree. Evo presumably thought he would be competitive and it certainly appears that he was.

Absolutely nothing wrong in pointing out how he could have been adversely effected.

OK fair enough - I didn't phrase the first bit particularly well and you're quite right Evo has made no excuses himself but even though Julia may have made reasonable observations as you put it at the same time some people might interpret that Julia was also looking to make excuses for him. I just wonder if his teeth would have been mentioned if he'd won.

As for withdrawing I only said if he was that bad - substantially more than normal - not for one minute suggesting all players should withdraw if only say 85/90 per cent fit.

Spectator · All-time great

I don't think that mentioning potentially relevant circumstances is the same as making excuses. And quite honestly, given the distance travelled, the time/effort/expense involved in this trip, and the relative lack of matches played, I think that were I he, I would have tried to play if at all possible.

RJA · Hall of fame

Hopefully he will play qualifying for one of the ATP 250 events next week. After that he is playing the Seoul Challenger in week 44 and presumably staying in the Far East for a while as there are 4 challengers in a row out there (2 in Korea and 2 in Japan).

Obviously this trip has been disappointing but these things happen.

korriban · Challenger level

Spectator wrote:
I don't think that mentioning potentially relevant circumstances is the same as making excuses. And quite honestly, given the distance travelled, the time/effort/expense involved in this trip, and the relative lack of matches played, I think that were I he, I would have tried to play if at all possible.

Sometimes it can come across that way, but in this case I think it's spot on. If Dan were suffering a little before a $10k in Cardiff, it's a no brainer to pull out. Out in California with all the expense, time and ranking points to consider, he'd play 9 times out of 10 even if under the weather. To be absolutely even handed, I'm sure there are many players in exactly the same boat week in week out, especially towards the end of the season, suffering with niggles and minor injuries and making judgement calls about whether to play or not......so I'm sure a few glorious victories for Brits have been helped by 80% fit opponents across the net, and we are all blissfully unaware.

Shame for Dan: a poor trip results wise, points wise and injury/issues wise.......but that's precisely the type of short term setback which all top players (with a few notable exceptions) have to face once or twice a year, every year, and they have to learn to bounce back. If it's going to affect Dan negatively and send him spiralling back to old ways, then he'll never make it as a top 50-100 player......better to find this out now. If he takes it in his stride and works his way back into form, then we will know we have a player in it for the long haul. So I'm glad in a funny way that this mini blip has happened so soon after the big push, so Dan can really test his new commitment and resolve off the court.......which was always the underlying issue.

Would love him to have a cracking Asian swing after a couple of weeks of training, friends but NO nightlife back home.

Good luck Dan! smile

Salmon · Tennis legend

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but this is why I wanted Evans to play KL, Tokyo and Shanghai instead of the Challengers. Irrespective of the points he would have won, the experience could have improved him as a player. Tournaments keep coming and going, but it would have been wonderful to see him push for the top with the momentum that he had built in the US Open.

I don't think he is making it to the Australian Open as a direct entrant. He needs to get 200 more points for that, and that will be a tough ask in the four or five more weeks of tennis that he will get this year. But it's important that he pushes on and at least ensures that he is in line to get a good seeding in the qualies.

On an unrelated note, Cox is going to play Stockholm qualies.

indiana · Tennis legend

Even in hindsight, I personally still think Evo made the right choice with more likelihood of just the competitive grinding matches he needed at this time.

But I can see the alternative view.